Contents

Pre-Zero
Hour

Universo first appeared in Adventure Comics #349 (Oct 1966)
as a powerful hypnotist. With his "Hypno Stone", he is able to
control the head of the Time Institute, and lure the Legionnaires
into a series of traps. The Legion defeats him with the help of a
Time Cube invented by scientist Rond Vidar, who is subsequently revealed to
be Universo's son.

Universo returns in Adventure Comics #359 (August
1967), where he manages to take control of Earth by posing as the
new president, Kandro Boltax, using his powers of hypnosis,
augmented by a chemical placed in the world's water supply. He
accomplishes this while most of the Legion is away from Earth on a
mission, and they return to find the Legion outlawed. The Legion
find refuge in one of Lex
Luthor's abandoned hideouts and eventually, with the help of
Rond Vidar, are able to thwart his plans.

A later tale from the Legion Archives depicted in Legion of
Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #295 (January 1983) revealed that
Universo is a former member of the Green Lantern Corps who was
assigned to journey to the Time Institute on Earth, and prevent the
Legion from viewing the Dawn of Time (an act which had catastrophic
consequences when perpetrated eons earlier by the Maltusian
scientist Krona). When he attempted to view the
Dawn of Time himself, he was stripped of his ring by the Guardians of the Universe
(making him and Sinestro
the only two renegade Green Lanterns in pre-Crisis continuity). Rond
Vidar would later acquire his power ring.

Much later, Universo manages to temporarily take control of
Earth again, this time posing as President Mojai Desai's right-hand
man, Vid-Gupta. Universo is able to mentally control the entire
Legion except the four members most difficult to hypnotize: Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy and Dream Girl. These events are depicted in a
four-issue arc termed "The Universo Project".

"Five
Years Later"

Years later, the Dominators seize control of Earth during its
economic collapse, and Universo ends up as one of the primary
leaders of the resistance movement. He is branded a terrorist by
the Dominion-backed Earthgov, who accuse him of working with the Khunds. He was in fact working with
the Dark Circle,
though it is clear he is not working for them and has his own
agenda. Jacques Foccart, Troy Stewart, and the former
members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes
work alongside him in resisting the Dominion control of Earth.
After Earth is liberated, he uses his new status to work further
schemes with Leland McCauley.

Post-Zero
Hour

Following the rebooting of Legion history in Zero Hour, Universo was reinvented as
Sarmon Ardeen, Saturn Girl's cousin. He first appears in
the Legion/Titans
crossover Universe Ablaze (March 2000), set in an alternate timeline in which the Titans are
in suspended animation until the 31st century. He joins forces with
a recreated Cult of
Blood to take control of the Titans. When this timeline is
negated, the real timeline has him imprisoned on his home moon, Titan. After the return of the "Legion
Lost" from the Second Galaxy, Universo makes an attempt to control
Saturn Girl, and the Titanet telepathic communication network. This
fails, and Saturn Girl leaves his mind in the same fantasy scenario
he had created for her.

This version of Universo has been erased from continuity in the
aftermath of the Infinite Crisis miniseries.

Post-Infinite Crisis

Universo is among the super-villains in Superboy-Prime's
Legion of Super-Villains in
the Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries. He gives
his assent and approval as Superboy-Prime murders his son Rond,
falsely believing that he would be able to seize Rond's Green
Lantern power ring upon his death.

Powers

Universo's primary power is that of hypnosis, allowing him to
control people, in a manner that lasts long after he leaves them.
He is able to shift loyalties, erase memories, and even have people
under his control think independently (to a degree) to accomplish
the goals he sets them to. He sometimes wears a necklace which
seems to enhance the power of his hypnosis. Using his mental
abilities he can also appear to be someone else, so that everyone
viewing him sees and remembers him as a completely different
person.

At one point he possessed a Green Lantern power ring, but it was
stripped from him. As such he had a particular grudge against Oa, the planet of the Guardians of the
Universe, and he had planned in "The Universo Project" to use the
Legion to attack Oa.